• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.306-313
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• 2017

An early detection of infiltration in veins is essential to minimize the injuries caused during infusion therapy, which is one of the most important tasks for nurses in clinical settings. We report that bioelectrical impedance analysis is useful in the early detection of infiltration at puncture sites. When infiltration was intentionally induced in the vein of a rabbit's ear, impedance parameters showed significant difference before and after infiltration. In particular, the relative resistance at 20 kHz in the vein of rabbit's ear reduced largely at infiltration, decreased slowly, and then stayed at a constant value. This indicates that the vein in the ear of the rabbit is small, and hence the infiltrated intravenous (IV) solution no longer accumulates after 3 minutes of infiltration. However, when infiltration was induced in the vein of a human's forearm, the relative resistance at 20 kHz decreased gradually over time. In the $R-X_c$ graph, the positions in infiltration induced in the rabbit's ear rapidly shifted before and after infiltration whereas the positions in infiltration induced in the human's forearm changed gradually during infiltration. Our findings suggest that bioelectrical impedance analysis is an effective method to detect the infiltration early in a noninvasive and quantitative manners.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.314-323
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• 2017

Indicators to quantitatively evaluate the body function may help to optimize the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapy for stroke patients. In this study, we analyzed the body composition in the paretic and nonparetic regions of stroke patients with hemiplegia caused by cerebral hemorrhage (7 cases) and cerebral infarction (13 cases) using multifrequency bioelectrical impedance. Specifically, we considered fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), FFMI index (FFMI), FM/FFM relation, body cell mass (BCM), basal metabolic rate (BMR), and BMR/FFM relation to evaluate the bodily function in the paretic and nonparetic regions. These values showed considerable differences according to grades determined by the stroke causes and the paralysis status. In the paretic regions, the FFM, FFMI, BCM, and BMR were low and the FM was high. In contrast, the nonparetic regions showed a high FFM and low FM. Furthermore, the paretic and nonparetic regions of all patients suitably fit a linear relation (slope: 22.17 kcal/day/kg) between BMR and FFM. Therefore, bio-electrical impedance measurements can be very useful to quantitatively assess paretic and nonparetic regions in hemiplegic stroke patients.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.1035-1045
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• 2017

Classification of age and gender has been carried out through different approaches such as facial-based and audio-based classifications. One of the limitations of facial-based methods is the reduced recognition rate over large distances, while another is the prerequisite of the faces to be located in front of the camera. Similarly, in audio-based methods, the recognition rate is reduced in a noisy environment. In contrast, gait-based methods are only required that a target person is in the camera. In previous works, the view point of a camera is only available as a side view and gait data sets consist of a standard gait, which is different from an ordinary gait in a real environment. We propose a feature extraction method using skeleton models from an RGB-D sensor by considering characteristics of age and gender using ordinary gait. Experimental results show that the proposed method could efficiently classify age and gender within a target group of individuals in real-life environments.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.889-894
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• 1999

Preparation of micron size polymer particles which have desired morphology, size, and structure by emulsion polymerization is very difficult due to coagulation of latex particles and formation of second generation particles. But there are attractive merits such as preparation of structural and functional polymer particles in seeded emulsion polymerization. Seeded emulsion polymerization of n-butyl acrylate(BA) was carried out to investigate the effects of stirring rate, reaction temperature, concentration of initiator, emulsifier, and cross-linking agent on the particle size and size distribution. By the combination of suitable reaction conditions, we succeeded in preparing $0.14{\sim}3.67{\mu}m$ diameter of poly(n-butyl acrylate)(PBA) particles using sequential seeded emulsion polymerization.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.397-407
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• 2017

A dimensionally stable anode based on the $RuO_2$ electrocatalyst is an important electrode for generating chlorine. The $RuO_2$ is well-known as an electrode material with high electrocatalytic performance and stability. In this study, sonoelectrodeposition is proposed to synthesize the $RuO_2$ electrodes. The electrode obtained by this novel process shows better electrocatalytic properties and stability for generating chlorine compared to the conventional one. The high roughness and outer surface area of the $RuO_2$ electrode from a new fabrication process leads to increase in the chlorine generation rate. This enhanced performance is attributed to the accelerated mass transport rate of the chloride ions from electrolyte to electrode surface. In addition, the electrode with sonodeposition method showed higher stability than the conventional one, which might be explained by the mass coverage enhancement. The effect of sonodeposition time was also investigated, and the electrode with longer deposition time showed higher electrocatalytic performance and stability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.373-381
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• 2017

$RuO_2$ is a common active component of Dimensionally Stable Anodes (DSAs) for chlorine evolution that can be used in wastewater treatment systems. The recent improvement of chlorine evolution using nanostructures of $RuO_2$ electrodes to increase the treatment efficiency and reduce the energy consumption of this process has received much attention. In this study, $RuO_2$ nanorod and nanosheet electrodes were simply fabricated using the sol-gel method with organic surfactants as the templates. The obtained $RuO_2$ nanorod and nanosheet electrodes exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic activities for chlorine evolution possibly due to the active surface areas, especially the outer active surface areas, which are attributed to the increase in mass transfers compared with a conventional nanograin electrode. The electrocatalytic activities for chlorine evolution were increased up to 20 % in the case of the nanorod electrode and 35% in the case of the nanosheet electrode compared with the nanograin electrode. The $RuO_2$ nanorod 80 nm in length and 20-30 nm in width and the $RuO_2$ nanosheet 40-60 nm in length and 40 nm in width are formed on the surface of Ti substrates. These results support that the templated $RuO_2$ nanorod and nanosheet electrodes are promising anode materials for chlorine evolution in future applications.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-177
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• 2015

Purpose: Accurate monitoring of soil strength is a key technology applicable to various precision agricultural practices. Soil strength has been traditionally measured using a cone penetrometer, which is time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult to obtain the spatial data required for precision agriculture. To improve the current, inefficient method of measuring soil strength, our objective was to develop and evaluate an in-situ system that could measure horizontal soil strength in real-time, while moving across a soil bin. Methods: Multiple cone-shape penetrometers were horizontally assembled at the front of a vertical plow blade at intervals of 5 cm. Each penetrometer was directly connected to a load cell, which measured loads of 0-2.54 kN. In order to process the digital signals from every individual transducer concurrently, a microcontroller was embedded into the measurement system. Wireless data communication was used between a data storage device and this real-time horizontal soil strength (RHSS) measurement system travelling at 0.5 m/s through an indoor experimental soil bin. The horizontal soil strength index (HSSI) measured by the developed system was compared with the cone index (CI) measured by a traditional cone penetrometer. Results: The coefficient of determination between the CI and the HSSI at depths of 5 cm and 10 cm ($r^2=0.67$ and 0.88, respectively) were relatively less than those measured below 20 cm ($r^2{\geq}0.93$). Additionally, the measured HSSIs were typically greater than the CIs for a given numbers of compactor operations. For an all-depth regression, the coefficient of determination was 0.94, with a RMSE of 0.23. Conclusions: A HSSI measurement system was evaluated in comparison with the conventional soil strength measurement system, CI. Further study is needed, in the form of field tests, on this real-time measurement and control system, which would be applied to precision agriculture.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.301-313
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was conducted to discriminate between normal hulled barley and Fusarium (Fusarium asiaticum and Fusarium graminearum) infected hulled barley by using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique. Methods: Fusarium asiaticum and Fusarium graminearum were artificially inoculated in hulled barley and the reflectance spectrum of the barley spike was obtained by using a near-infrared spectral sensor with wavelength band in the range 1,175-2,170 nm. After obtaining the spectrum of the specimen, the hulled barley was cultivated in a greenhouse and visually inspected for infections. Results: From a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) prediction model developed from the raw spectrum data of the hulled barley, the discrimination accuracy for the normal and infected hulled barley was 99.82% (563/564) and 100% (672/672), respectively. Conclusions: NIRS is effective as a quick and nondestructive method to detect whether hulled barley has been infected with Fusarium. Further, it expected that NIRS will be able to detect Fusarium infections in other grains as well.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.292-297
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• 2011

Gas pipeline safety management and risk prediction are recognized as a very important issue. And the effort to prevent accidents is essential. So, in this study, it was studied through correlation of pressure changes for leak point detection in real-time. It experimented by installing the five leakage valves in the pipe of 378 m and compared the actual leak points with simulation results. The results showed that experimental leak points and the actual leak points have differences within the 6 m. And this technology has to be commercialized by the demonstration in dangerous zone.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.5-19
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• 2005

This paper describes the design and fabrication of magnetic levitation kits for use in the hands on experiments of automatic control, digital control and microprocessor applications in the division of mechatronics in Samcheok university. The kits are developed inspired by MIT's design, but it is designed on the digital basis, whereas MIT's is designed on the analog basis. As a result, the kits can be monitored and controlled on the analog and digital control techniques. Furthermore, the cost of kit components is comparable or lower to that of MIT design. And the kits can be controlled with magnetic hall sensors and/or infrared sensors, which provides more versatile experience on the use of sensors and signal filtering to the students. The design is fabricated and tested by authors and will be provided to the students as lab projects. The kits will be intentionally presented with a device that is poorly instrumented and poorly compensated. And the students are expected to analyze sensor signal and controller performance, and then, perform compensator design and signal filtering.